Residential and commercial electrical systems have been in existence for many decades. Little has changed in the operation, installation, and expectations of such systems.
Home automation systems have also been available for many years. Such systems may be programmed to allow household devices to be turned on or off at predetermined times, regardless of whether the premise is occupied; allow lights to be controlled from a central location in the premises, or multiple locations; or allow control of devices and/or lighting via a remote connection such as via a cellular modem or Internet connection. However, all of these systems suffer significant disadvantages, including expensive proprietary hardware and software, complicated setup and maintenance such as (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) network administration, lack of interoperable standards, dissimilar user interfaces, and monthly fees for subscription services. Many of these systems are primary focused on other capabilities, such as security/alarm monitoring, surveillance systems, Internet service, etc., and home automation is an augmentation to this. Regardless, these systems do not address a fundamental change in the way electrical fixtures and appliances are controlled.
Typical home automation systems require expensive, dedicated, proprietary user interfaces (UIs) and/or additional hardware, such as touch screens, remote control devices, switch plates, etc., to be installed in the home. Such systems are generally expensive and complex, and are therefore restricted to high end homes, or early adopter users. Further, once the equipment is installed, especially in the case of the user interface, adopting new, lower cost technology as it becomes available is highly problematic. The disclosed embodiment uses a standard smart phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer as the UI, and utilizes the native communications protocols embedded in such devices.
While home automation was previous a convenience only considered in high end properties, or early technology adopters, rising utility costs are moving the focus to energy saving as a true financial benefit. Operators of commercial and industrial properties in particular, are extremely conscious of the cost of utilities to operate their buildings.
Commercial building control systems are also high capital cost items, and require dedicated personnel to operate and maintain them. Arguably, while the building utilities are managed, such as heating and ventilation, this is not always perceived to be to the benefit or comfort of the individual in the location.
This disclosure identifies a fundamentally new approach to home automation. While this disclosure references residential light bulbs as one embodiment, this same technology is equally applicable to a wide range of residential and industrial products, either as an add-on, external function, or integrated within the product itself. The light bulb embodiment is used to exemplify the fact that this technology can be integrated extremely cost effectively, and add enormous user benefits such as convenience, energy savings, and security.
The simple light bulb exemplifies the technology transformation in devices previously assumed to be passive, throw away devices. If a simple light bulb can be made intelligent, accessible from a hand held device via a free smart phone App, able to meet the rigorous engineering challenges of miniaturization, and able to operate in a hostile heat environment; while simultaneously meeting consumer expectations for low cost and long lifetime, then this technology is clearly applicable to other, less hostile, long-life, cost sensitive applications.
Within the past 5 years, semiconductor light emitting diode (LED) based lights have moved from novelty to mainstream. While LED bulbs are currently more expensive than incandescent or CFL bulbs, they have much longer operating lifetimes. LED bulbs have typical operational lifetimes of 30,000 hours or more, compared with CFLs at around 8,000 hours, and incandescent light bulbs at around 1,000 hours.
Bluetooth wireless technology is well understood as a communications system to connect cellular/mobile phones to external devices such as headsets, speakers, and hands-free in-car systems. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), also referred to as Bluetooth Smart and/or Bluetooth 4.0, is a version of the Bluetooth wireless technology that is specifically optimized for very low power consumption and short, bursty message traffic, typical of control data network communications. Advances in semiconductor technology have driven down the cost of BLE interfaces, and these are now commonly available as a native communications function in mainstream computer and communications platforms.
The incremental cost of adding integrated intelligence and communications such as Bluetooth Low Energy, to an LED light bulb, is modest and can be amortized over a much longer lifespan, not possible in short lifetime/cheap incandescent and CFL bulbs.
The creation of an intelligent wireless LED light bulb (referred to herein as a “smart bulb”) is disclosed as a non-limiting example. The smart bulb can be individually addressed, controlled, and monitored wirelessly, from a simple mainstream communications device, such as a cellular or mobile smart phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. The mechanical construction of such a device is disclosed by example, in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/779,586, entitled “LED Light Bulb Construction and Manufacture”, and U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 14/210,018, entitled LED Light Bulb Construction and Manufacture, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,644,799.
Further, the use of multiple low-cost and high volume standardized mobile platforms, allows simple software applications (“Apps”) to be developed, to control these individually addressable light bulbs, using common and intuitive user interfaces.
While wireless controlled automation devices and systems have been disclosed previously, these do not teach the use of detecting the received signal strength of the controlling device, to determine the presence, absence, or relative location of said controlling device, and adapting the response of the automation device or system accordingly.
These limitations are solved by the present invention in the manner described below.